Charity Commission safeguarding taskforce

The reports are in relation to both historic and more recent incidents. To help the Commission manage and respond to this demand, they established a specific safeguarding taskforce in February. Part of their role will be to undertake a review of historic serious incidents and whistleblowing reports on safeguarding issues.

In February and March 2018, the Commission received 532 serious incident reports on safeguarding incidents, compared to 176 during the equivalent period in 2017.

Charities are required to make a serious incident report to the Charity Commission as a core responsibility. A serious incident is an adverse event, whether actual or alleged, which results in or risks significant:

• loss of your charity’s money or assets
• damage to your charity’s property
• harm to your charity’s work, beneficiaries or reputation

All trustees hold ultimate responsibility for ensuring their charity makes a report, and does so in a timely manner. The Charity Commission provides guidance on serious incident reporting: How-to-report-a-serious-incident-in-your-charity

For further guidance on safeguarding and reporting a serious incident, contact the WCVA Safeguarding Service by email: safeguarding@wcva.org.uk or through our helpline: 0800 2888 329